The subject matter described herein relates generally to the packaging of products. More particularly, the subject matter described herein relates to a modular container assembly for packaging a plurality of products.
Container systems are known to contain at least one product within a cavity. Examples of products contained with such known container systems include food products, cosmetics, adhesives, and medical/surgical tools. Typically, container systems are uniquely configured for each storage and/or application requirement. Meeting such unique storage or application requirements can be expensive in terms of capital investment for tooling to fabricate the container as well as drive inventory costs.
With at least some known container system applications, once a product is stored therein, the system may be subjected to further processing. For example, known container systems may be filled with a first product, and then subsequently heated, cooled, sealed, and/or stored to further process and/or treat the first product. When such known container systems are filled with a second product, the second product mixes with the first product and, thus, is subject to similar processes, treatments, and/or environments as the first product, which may not be acceptable.
To separate one product from another product, at least some known container systems include a plurality of sidewalls that define a plurality of cavities, wherein each of the cavities contains a separate product. Each sidewall typically is formed from the same material as the other sidewalls, and therefore, the material used to form the sidewalls is selected so as to accommodate the processing requirements for all the products stored in the container system. As a result, if one of the sidewalls requires use of more expensive material than the other sidewalls, even the other sidewalls are fabricated from the more expensive material, which adversely impacts the overall cost of the container system.
In addition to material selection, in at least some applications, the shape of at least one sidewall of the container system is independent of the shape of the other sidewalls. Known systems generally do not provide for selection of independent sidewall shapes, which is a constraint on the types of products that may be stored as well as product combinations.